Members’ Events List

and

Volunteer Programme

2013/14

Issue 2

Tel: 01624 824137

Website: www.friendsofmnh.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/friendsofmnh

E-mail: fmnh.njp@manx.net

Members’ Events List & Volunteer Programme

2016 / 2017

Members’ Events List

and

Volunteer Programme

2013/14

Issue 2

Tel: 01624 824137

Website: www.friendsofmnh.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/friendsofmnh

E-mail: fmnh.njp@manx.net

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Chairman’s Letter, September 2016

Dear Member,

I’m pleased to report that FMNH has had another busy year. We have made some significant purchases, have supported MNH with volunteers and have had fun ourselves via our events programme.

In my last letter, I promised that we would be making new announcements regarding reciprocal agreements and I’m pleased to say that we have added Heritage Malta http://heritagemalta.org/ to the list. FMNH already had a reciprocal with D’in l-art Helwa in Malta so having Heritage Malta is a perfect addition.

We continue to look at ways to improve and extend the benefits of FMNH membership, and during the year Nicola and the Director of MNH visited Ireland to cement our relationship with OPW there.

On an administrative note, however, the FMNH office has had a number of calls recently asking about parking at National Trust properties and carparks. Nicola has approached the National Trust and they have confirmed that the reciprocal arrangement covers free admission to National Trust pay-for-entry sites, but not free parking. Apparently this has always been the policy but National Trust is aware that FMNH members have occasionally been allowed to park free at some of their sites. They are currently expanding their car parks and introducing pay machines at many sites where there has previously been no charge, so I’m afraid we can expect the policy to be applied more firmly at all places in the future. The reciprocal still represents good value for members using National Trust sites though.

More positively, during the year the FMNH Directors have agreed to support MNH with the following purchases:-

Purchase at Auction of Trafalgar Medal £9,920. This is the Naval General Service Medal, with clasp ‘Trafalgar’ awarded to John Cowle for service aboard HMS Temeraire in Nelson’s famous action against the Franco-Spanish fleet on 21 October 1805. Cowle, who was from Bride, appears on the ship’s books as a Landsman. He was apparently impressed into the Royal Navy, and lost his arm at Trafalgar. He afterwards returned to the Isle of Man, where he was known as ‘Hook’ Cowle. He earned a living as a schoolmaster, and is mentioned in the book Manx Worthies.

Conservation of historic uniforms from the era 1790-1815 from the MNH collection £20,000. These items relate particularly to the Royal Manx Fencibles, Captain John Quilliam RN and Major Caesar Bacon of the 23rd Light Dragoons, who was present at Waterloo. These will hopefully be on display in the future.

10 camera traps for the Calf of Man Shearwater Recovery project £4517. Camera traps have been very useful tools in maintaining biosecurity on the Calf.

We have continued to give many hours of volunteering to MNH over the year and I thank all our volunteers for the time they give and for their enthusiasm.

Our diverse programme of events has also been extremely well supported, and the events have been fun and always interesting. I commend the 2016/2017 list to you.

Lastly my thanks go to the Directors and Officers for their continued efforts, and to you, the members, for all your support in so many ways. It is only through the collective efforts of all that we can maintain an organisation which is worth being a member of and which can help with supporting our unique heritage.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Fayle, Chairman

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Dear Friend,

I am writing this letter in the run up to the General Election and this prompted me to consider some of the wider impacts of this on the Island and its heritage. With so many experienced politicians standing down we will see many new faces in the Keys in October, including a new Chief Minister. The new teams in the Council of Ministers and in Tynwald will face significant challenges as they continue to respond to the sometimes global challenges facing the Island. The election is also followed by the re-constitution of Boards and Offices which means we will be refreshing our own Trustee Board. It won’t be “all change” but there are a number of vacancies so we will certainly see some new faces at MNH as well.

I have been heartened to see many references to Manx culture and heritage in the manifestos of candidates for election. We know that the wider community thinks these things are important as well. The Government recently published the results of its first ever Social Attitudes Survey which had over 2000 responses. It showed that 75% of the Island population had visited a Manx National Heritage site in the last 12 months. This is higher than the UK average which suggests about 60% of the population visit museums and heritage sites annually. Our challenge as the new administration settles in is to make sure that the issues MNH feels are important to the life of the Island continue to be reflected in the policies of the Government. These cover a wide range of areas including biodiversity, the Manx language,

planning and the historic environment, the school curriculum, the creative industries and many more. It is also critical that we continue to receive the funding we need from government to maintain our services to our community and visitors alike.

One of the things that became an election issue for many was the future of the Douglas Bay Horse Trams. MNH has never had any involvement with the Tramway in all its 140 year history but after the announcement from Douglas Corporation in January this year that they were to close we were asked to assist in developing a rescue package. It’s been particularly gratifying to see the public concern that this aspect of our heritage be properly considered – and fascinating to see how much interest it generated off-Island.

I am delighted to say that Tynwald accepted the recommendation that Isle of Man Railways operate the system for the next couple of years at least. We have agreed to help them out with marketing and promotion to create a new and more sustainable offer. We already work very closely with Railways to “sell” the Island’s heritage and we can add the Horse Trams to our combined offer very cost-effectively. Many of our visitors to the Laxey Wheel for example use the Douglas Horse Tramway and the Manx Electric Railway to get there and we are in a great position to offer “joined up” experiences. As a result of the new arrangements we have already seen travel operators booking holidays for next season. For the first time the Horse

Letter from MNH Director, September 2016

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Trams will also be running till the end of October – so that we send out the key message that the Island is “open for business” for longer than our traditional summer season.

One of the ways we were able to help the Tramway was to supply images from our archive for a new guide that was produced for the summer season. Retail is now an important part of the budget for any heritage attraction and we have been refreshing our own series of guidebooks. We re-published our Laxey Wheel guide last year and had a new Peel Castle guide ready for the start of this season. Others are in preparation ready for next year. The Manx Museum has never had a souvenir guidebook and many visitors ask for one. I have taken up the challenge myself of writing this and I have to confess I have thoroughly enjoyed the process. It has been a real pleasure to look through our archives and select from the thousands of images and objects we hold. As well as old favourites I have found some real gems and hope people enjoy reading the book as much as I have enjoyed assembling it. It’s also been rewarding to work with a local firm to produce the guide and it will be ready soon for those of you who have yet to do your Christmas shopping.

Most of the images I have chosen for the new guidebook are already on line through the iMuseum and I wanted to remind you that we have given this online resource a major facelift during the summer. There are lots of new features such as the ability to zoom in on the detail of images. We’ve also increased the amount of information available and we have over 1m records now online. These include the fabulous collection of photographs by Manxman Chris Killip which FMNH helped us acquire. The exhibition we did this Spring which featured these powerful and striking images also gave us the opportunity to collect more information about the characters and places portrayed – in some cases from the family and friends of people in the pictures. That information is now embedded in our documentation and available on-line. As a result of this work we’ve been considering how we can open up our

information-gathering to the wider community. Much of the information collected on the wild-life of the Island is assembled by volunteers and organisations such as the Wildlife Trust. We work very closely with them and are part of a joint partnership which makes this data available to assist in protecting and preserving the Manx landscape and rare species of flora and fauna.

As we move forward to deliver our services to the community we will use the new technologies and tools at our disposal to offer more opportunities for people to engage with us and add to our knowledge and understanding of the heritage of the Island. We will make many of those opportunities available to FMNH in the first instance.

Thank you for your continued support.

With best wishes

Edmund Southworth Director

Manx National Heritage, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3LYEiraght Ashoonagh Vannin, Doolish, Ellan Vannin IM1 3LY

Members Events Programme 2016/17

OCTOBER

Friday 21st - Trafalgar Night DinnerIn conjunction with The Quilliam Group the evening will be a musical extravaganza, with well-known vocalist Paul Costain as part of the musical entertainment, along with some other acts. Pre-dinner drinks and rum for toasts, but bring you own wine.Time: 7pm Venue: Ballabeg Village Hall Max 65 Price £20pp

NOVEMBER

Saturday 12th - Talk and Honey tasting Cilla Platt, Education Officer for the Bee Keepers Federation will kindly give FMNH a talk on the honey bee. Bees are amongst the most important insects to man on earth. Followed by a tasting of local Manx honey, from different parts of the Island.Time: 2.30pm Venue: The House of Manannan Max 50 Free

Friday 18th - House of Manannan early Christmas shopping eventStart your Christmas shopping early with an exclusive discount evening for FMNH members. There will be festive mince pies, mulled wine and 15% off in the shop (excluding commission items). Time: 4.30pm - 7.30pm Venue: The House of Manannan

JANUARY

Friday 20th - ‘Exploring the Cosmos’ with Howard ParkinDinner and talk (potential stargazing if a clear night!). Howard is a well-known Manx astronomer; he is a founder member, and former chairman, of the IOM Astronomical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He lectures on the subject, not just on the IOM but throughout the world and is very enthusiastic about the subject.Time: 7pm Venue: The Sound Restaurant Max 60 £20pp

Saturday 28th - Happy Holidays 3A colourful kaleidoscope of film extracts from the Isle of Man’s tourism archive. A chance for a bit of nostalgia and perhaps some happy memories!Time: 2.30pm Venue: The House of Manannan Max 50 Free

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FEBRUARY

Wednesday 1st February - Meet the photographersThe Western Photographic Society will be present to show Friends their exhibition on the theme of Manx Culture and Heritage, and to discuss the images and any aspects of photography that might be of interest, including equipment, technique and the making of self-published photobooks.Time: 11am Venue: Exploratorium, Manx Museum Max 20 Free Tuesday 28th - Are the Peggy’s Cannons Manx?A technical talk by Tony Morfett on whether it is possible to show if copper alloy artefacts are of Manx origin or not. Specifically, are the Peggy’s copper alloy cannons Manx?Time: 11am Venue Manx Museum SR1 Max 12 Free

MARCH

Friday 17th - Murder Mystery Dinner ‘Grave Murder’The Suspect Players are delighted to present the premiere of the latest ‘whodunit’.(No acting / active participation required). Bring your own wine.Time: 7pm Venue: Ballasalla Village Hall Max 70 £20pp

Thursday 30th - Yvonne Cresswell TalkSophia Morrison – Recording the Past to Create the FutureSophia Morrison was a Manx cultural activist, folklore collector and author. Through her own work and role in encouraging and enthusing others, she is considered to be one of the key figures of the Manx cultural revival.Time: 11am Venue: SR1 Manx Museum Max 50 Free

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Members Events Programme 2016/17

Events listing continues overleaf..

Members Events Programme 2016/17

MAY

Monday 15th - ‘Seaside Piers’ Lecture by Chris Foote-Wood Chris Foote-Wood is an author, stand-up comedian and was a politician until 2015. He is the brother of the late comedian and actress Victoria Wood. Described as ‘Enthusiastic, dynamic, energetic, loves life, painfully honest, greatly values loyalty, outspoken’. This shared lecture with NADFAS will be an entertaining evening looking at British seaside piers, historic and present, including our own in Douglas and Ramsey.Doors open at 6.30pm, drinks and canapes served before the lecture.Lecture to start at 7.15pm sharp.Time: 6.30pm Venue: Manx Museum Max 190 £10pp

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Volunteers needed …Can you help?We are really grateful to all our members who volunteer to help FMNH. Your contribution greatly assists our work and without you we couldn’t achieve all that we do. We are always pleased to welcome new volunteers.

Please fill in the details below if you would like to give some time to help the work of FMNH. It can be rewarding and fun! More information and times will be confirmed nearer the time of the events.

Name ............................................................................................................

Address .........................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................

Postcode ..............................E-mail ..............................................................

Telephone (Home) .....................................................................................

(Work) ......................................................................................

(Mobile).....................................................................................

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Please tick the box with any areas you are able to help:

ASSISTING AT FMNH EVENTS:

□ Trafalgar Night - Friday 21st October 2016Assist with serving food and clearing up.

□ Murder Mystery Dinner - Friday 17th March 2017Assist with serving food and clearing up

□ Sewing bees needed This was requested in the last list but the summer was too busy to organise! Nicola Tooms (assistant curator MNH) would love some help to make some garment bags for the textiles in the collection. Come and be part of a sewing workshop at the House of Manannan. If you have a sewing machine we would love you to bring it. Date to be confirmed in January.

ASSISTING AT MNH EVENTS:

□ Tick if you are happy for Nicola to contact you with more details as and when required

□ Supporting MNH Education DepartmentAssisting with preparation for their Schools workshop days. Anthea runs a great programme and FMNH are delighted to support her. Workshops are at the Manx Museum or House of Manannan. Dates to be confirmed

□ Gardening at Cregneash and the Grove Nicola will contact you with more details

Friends of Manx National HeritageBooking Form 2016 / 2017

Fill in the booking form and return with your cheque, made payable to FMNH, to: Mrs N Pemberton, FMNH, Ballachrink Mill, Santon, IM4 1HE

NB: to save on postage WE DO NOT SEND OUT TICKETS. We will contact you if you are not successful. Events on a “first come, first served” basis.

Name .............................................................................................................

Address ..........................................................................................................

...................................................................Postcode .....................................

E-mail .............................................................................................................

Telephone ..............................................Mobile..............................................

Date Event Price pp No’s Cost

Fri 21st Oct Trafalgar Night £20

Sat 12th Nov Bee Talk Free

Fri 18th Nov Christmas Shopping Free

Fri 20th Jan Cosmos Dinner £20

Sat 28th Jan Happy Holidays 3 Free

Wed 1st Feb Meet the Photographers Free

Tues 28th Feb Peggy’s Cannons Free

Fri 17th Mar Murder Mystery £20

Thu 30th Mar Sophia Morrison Free

Mon 15th May Seaside Piers £10

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